Mercy Ames

Name: Mercy Xiuying Ames

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Grade: 12

School: George Hunter High School

Hobbies and Interests: Poetry, baking, cheerleading, photography, mixed martial arts, K-pop music

Appearance: Mercy is 5’0” and weighs 106 pounds. She has a trim, fit figure with toned arms and legs and a strong core, and her bust and hips are very slight. Mercy is ethnically Cantonese and has a tan skin tone. Her eyes are small and dark brown, and her hair is straight and black, though it lightens to brown highlights with exposure to the sun. Her hair styled in an asymmetrical bob, with the right side falling to her chin and the left side more even with her earlobe. She has a round face and soft features, with a rounded nose and bow-shaped lips.

Mercy dresses in ways that she considers cute; she prefers oversized sweaters and leggings or blouses and shorts, and most of her clothes are in pastel tones. She favors hairclips and jewelry with decorative bows, flowers, or animal motifs. Her ears are pierced once in the lobe and she usually wears studs in various shapes and colors. She wears little makeup, preferring a faux-natural look with foundation and concealer to smooth her complexion and mascara to bring out her eyes.

On the day of the abduction, Mercy was wearing an oversized galaxy print sweatshirt over a white camisole, pastel purple leggings, and light purple Converse. She also wore silver stud earrings in the shape of stars, a hairclip with an oversized pastel blue bow on the right side of her hair, and a necklace with a pendant in the shape of a glittery cupcake. She had worn a little makeup as usual.

Biography: Xiuying Han was born in Hong Kong on July 2, 2000. Her birth parents chose to give her up for adoption through a Christian organization, as they already had children and did not feel that they could support another. Xiuying remained in state care until the age of 3, when an adoption match was found through the organization’s contacts in the United States. Hannah and Julian Ames had decided to adopt a child rather than trying to conceive, as they wanted to provide a stable and loving home for a child that might otherwise not have one. They had decided on international adoption as it ensured greater permanence of custody, and they felt that it was a charitable thing to do.

Once the fees and visa were processed and approved, Xiuying was brought to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to enter the care of her adoptive parents. Hannah and Julian debated on whether it was right to change her birth name, but eventually decided that doing so felt like officially making her part of the family, and Xiuying’s first name was legally changed to Mercy, after Hannah’s recently deceased grandmother.

Hannah worked as a wedding planner and Julian as a dental assistant, allowing them to live comfortably enough with a single child, though they were careful with their finances in the months following the adoption thanks to the costs. Hannah took time off from her work more often than Julian to spend time with and care for Mercy; when neither of her parents were available, Mercy was most often left in the care of Hannah’s parents, Vince and Rose Eddington. She was a cheerful and social child, adjusting well to her new home and caretakers and making friends easily once she began school.

Mercy’s earliest hobbies arose from activities that she could do with her grandparents and her mom. Vince and Rose allowed Mercy to help with cooking meals at home and baking desserts for family gatherings and church functions from a young age, something which Mercy especially enjoyed because she got to sample the food as they went. She also prided herself on being a help around the house, especially as she grew older and her grandparents’ health rendered them less able to do all the household tasks themselves.

The other activity which Mercy picked up early was photography; Hannah often arranged photoshoots of venues and events as part of her work, which Mercy expressed interest in. She started out playing around with cameras and the photo editing software on her mom's computer around the age of nine and ten. While it was initially a fun diversion to keep her busy while Hannah worked, Mercy quickly picked up an affinity for nature and landscape shots, and upon being gifted her own camera as a present when she finished elementary school, she would often amuse herself by taking pictures around the neighborhood and local parks. As she developed her photography skill over the years, she also gave portraits and more experimental photography a try, but her preference has always been for landscapes and the outdoors.

While she was generally well-adjusted, Mercy was not an especially active child, as it was easier on her parents’ schedules and grandparents’ health to have her play indoors or at friends’ houses under the supervision of their parents. A lack of physical activity combined with a tendency to snack and overeat indulged by her grandparents resulted in Mercy putting on some extra weight, and she was fairly pudgy by the end of elementary school. Though she was never really bullied, Mercy was sometimes teased for her weight and her lack of physical ability, and her parents would make well-intentioned comments about her eating habits; though not outwardly affected much, Mercy internalized the sentiment that being overweight was unhealthy and bad.

Never given to outward expressions of negative feelings, Mercy began channeling her new frustrations with her body and others’ treatment of her over it, as well as any other day to day issues, into writing. She kept a diary for several years, and first began writing poetry at the beginning of middle school after being inspired by reading assignments concerning various poetic styles. Over the years, she developed her own style with poetry, preferring short poems with symbolic meanings that discussed one topic on the surface but were really about her own thoughts or insecurities. Mercy gradually grew less dedicated to keeping a diary, though to this day she does find it therapeutic to vent her feelings on paper from time to time.

Due to their concerns about her weight and health, Hannah and Julian decided to sign Mercy up for a sport of some kind to encourage better physical activity. A local gymnastics and tumbling gym was offering beginner-level cheerleading classes, which Mercy expressed interest in, and she was soon enrolled. At first, she struggled with the physical demands and was discouraged and highly self-conscious. She wanted to quit early on, feeling that she wouldn’t be able to catch up to the other girls on the team, but her parents pushed her to stick with it and she slowly but surely saw improvement, her confidence growing along with her skill.

By the end of middle school, Mercy’s new activity regimen from cheerleading and some family adjustments for healthier eating habits had helped her lose her excess weight. She had mixed feelings about it; though she felt better about herself and had come to genuinely enjoy cheerleading and being active, Mercy felt that other people now treated her better because she was thin. She sometimes worried that people liked her for superficial traits rather than for who she really was. Though she had always liked cute and feminine things, Mercy couldn’t help feeling that it was these surface-level things which shaped others’ perceptions of her, rather than anything meaningful. She was especially unsure about whether boys liked her at any level deeper than the superficial, as her weight loss coincided with the age that she first began receiving attention from boys. The concern that any romantic inclinations someone might have towards her would be shallow was not a serious or constant thought, given that Mercy was not allowed to date until she turned seventeen and thus she didn’t spend too much time obsessing over boys and what they thought of her, but it did resurface from time to time.

Mercy took well enough to high school. Right away, she joined the cheerleading squad and the writing, cooking, and photography clubs, and she already had a good number of friends who ran in the same circles. Her parents and grandparents supported her at all her events, and she performed well, if not exceptionally in her classes and extracurriculars. Throughout high school, she maintained a steady B average with the occasional A or C, and while not a standout in her activities, she was an enthusiastic participant.

Over time though, Mercy grew very aware that she was firmly average at everything she tried and nothing more. She couldn’t push her grades or extracurricular performance in one area to a higher level without neglecting her other activities, and she didn’t want to sacrifice any of the things she enjoyed just to excel at one single thing with extra effort. While she worked hard at the things she liked, she felt that having a natural talent for something would go further than simply putting extra time into an individual activity; following that logic, she wasn't eager to pursue any one path at the expense of others if she wasn't already showing what she considered to be natural aptitude. Mercy began to fear that while she was good at the many things she enjoyed, she wasn’t good enough to leave any sort of lasting impact, and she worried that she might have already missed her chance at finding an activity at which she truly excelled while many of her peers had found their niche.

Mercy’s somewhat warped body image, her worries about not being good enough at her interests, and her feelings of helplessness to do anything about these issues began to take their toll on her focus and effort in school and extracurriculars, to the detriment of her performance. She lacked a good outlet for her negative feelings aside from writing, and her criticisms of what she felt to be subpar performance and effort began to be directed outwards as well as in at herself.

Mercy would lash out at people that she saw as akin to herself: those who were decent but not exceptional, who could maybe excel if they tried but couldn’t or didn’t for whatever reason. She gained a reputation within her clubs for being highly critical and demanding of both herself and others, and she would stew and sulk for an extended time if her standards weren’t met. This caused friction between Mercy and her fellow club members as some felt that she was being unfairly harsh. Really, she just wants to do the best that she can and for others to do the same, but she lacks constructive ways to express this or to vent her frustrations when she is unsatisfied. Arguments stemming from this also brought up Mercy’s internal doubts about whether she was truly liked as a person and whether people really treated her with the seriousness and respect that they did others.

Feeling lost, frustrated, and helpless, Mercy decided that she both wanted and needed to try something drastically different to see if she could gain credibility and possibly find something to excel at. After some consideration, she settled on martial arts. Martial arts appealed to her because she felt that it was a category of sports that nobody would expect her to participate in, much less be competent at, and she expected that it would be a completely different environment than anything she had done before. She also felt that she could develop a tougher and more serious reputation if she could get into something less traditionally feminine than the rest of her interests.

Hannah and Julian were taken aback when Mercy first told them that she wanted to take martial arts lessons, and they initially did not take her seriously, which only solidified Mercy’s determination. Though her parents blew her off at first, months of wheedling, pleading, and assurance that it wasn’t just a passing interest caused them to give in, and Mercy was enrolled in beginner-level mixed martial arts classes at a local dojo.

Mercy’s first few sessions at the dojo were a wake-up call. She had gone in with the expectation that because she was fit and strong for her size, she would do well from the very beginning, but the difference in MMA from anything that Mercy was used to quickly disabused her of that notion. While she was discouraged by her lack of immediate proficiency and considered quitting, much like she had when she first began cheerleading, she decided to stick with it. Though she has been practicing MMA for about a year at this point, progress has been slow. Mercy is still often discouraged and is aware that she is one of the lower performers in her level, but she has made friends at her dojo and does find the sport to be a good outlet for stress that she can’t vent in the same way with her other activities. She is determined to keep attending classes until she sees genuine improvement. While MMA classes have put additional strain on her already busy schedule, she prefers to go straight from one activity to another with only occasional breaks, as she doesn't really know what to do with herself when she has a lot of free time without something to focus on.

Aside from her personal hang-ups regarding her performance level, Mercy has few problems in school or in any of her other activities. Though her competitive spirit and critical attitude are a turn-off to some, she has a good number of friends through her various clubs. Her confidence in cheer in particular has recently gotten a boost, as she was elected co-captain of the squad. She does prefer to work on classwork and club projects solo rather than in groups, mainly out of a desire to independently prove herself and a suspicion that others will belittle her or not take her seriously.

Mercy recently joined one more club, the K-pop club, which was founded by her friend Robin Mireles. Mercy is a relative newcomer to the world of Korean pop, but she loves the upbeat musical style and the cute aesthetics of female idol groups. She often listens to K-pop as both workout and relaxation music, finding it to be a mood lifter in almost any situation.

One area in which Mercy has almost no experience is romance. Due to her parents’ traditional attitude, Mercy was not allowed to date until she turned seventeen. She wasn’t bothered by this most of the time and in fact found it a convenient excuse to get out of any situations which made her uncomfortable. Now that the possibility is open to her however, Mercy’s doubts about romance have resurfaced. She has lingering body image issues from when she was an overweight child and fears the possibility that someone might only want her for her looks, rather than truly appreciating her. Mercy has had a few crushes over the years, but she has yet to act on any of them even though she now has her parents’ approval, due to her uncertainty.

Mercy’s body image issues have also left their mark in the form of unhealthy eating habits. Though she and her family have made efforts to maintain a healthier diet, she tends to overeat when upset. She will binge on desserts when stressed, usually things she has baked herself, and then she will feel guilty and expend extra effort in her workout routines to ensure that she doesn’t gain any weight. Her family is so far unaware of the true extent of this, and Mercy keeps it from them out of shame, not fully recognizing that it is a worrisome behavior pattern.

Mercy does get along well with her family, though she feels closer to her grandparents than her parents. She still spends a lot of time at Vince and Rose’s house, helping them to keep the house clean and doing other chores for them as their advanced age makes it harder for them to do so. Mercy has rarely given thought to her biological family. Hannah and Julian were open with her when she began asking questions, and she is aware that she has birth parents and at least two siblings in Hong Kong and that she could possibly track them down through the agency which aided in her adoption. However, she doesn’t think that she could connect with them given how different her life has been from theirs at this point. While her adoptive parents are white, making an obvious ethnic difference between them, Mercy is very much assimilated to the environment she was raised in and doesn't have much interest in researching or otherwise connecting to her heritage at this point in her life.

Currently, Mercy is unsure of what she wants to do with her future. She plans to attend the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, having received a few small scholarships for her writing, photography, and cheerleading. She has thought about majoring in English and possibly working towards a degree in education, as she likes to see others succeed and feels that she might be good at helping people achieve their true potential.

Advantages: Mercy is physically fit and has competitive drive. She tries to be independent and does not like to rely on others, which could help her maintain even if she can’t make or keep alliances. Though she is unskilled, she has cursory training in fighting using mixed martial arts, which could catch an enemy off-guard.

Disadvantages: Mercy has low self-esteem and frequently second-guesses herself. Though she is fit, she is very small and is outmatched in terms of size and brute strength by many of her classmates. She bottles up her negative feelings rather than releasing them in a healthy way, to the detriment of her motivation, focus, and general mental wellbeing. Her drive to be independent could lead her to refuse help or support that she would be better off accepting.

Designated Number: Female student No. 037

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Designated Weapon: Bottle of powdered arsenic

Conclusion: It's better to act quickly and let it all out. If you overthink things and second-guess yourself at every opportunity, you're just going to die. Quickly, if you're lucky. - Abby Soto

'The above biography is as written by backslash. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Backslash

Kills: None

Killed By: Kelly Nguyen

Collected Weapons: Bottle of powdered arsenic (assigned weapon, used)

Allies: Ramsey Cortez, Kelly Nguyen, Madison Springer, Nathan Coleman

Enemies: 

Mid-game Evaluation: Mercy approached the temple upon waking, and was immediately defeated by her first obstacle in the form of a particularly stubborn door. She approached the people within- Ramsey Cortez and Theo Walterson, feeling a sort of dull surprise at how inane introducing herself was on death island. They stood down from the posturing with Theo's assigned gun- which Mercy would soon realize for the fake that it was- and after some awkward standing on the wrong side of walls and doors, the others in the area also made some overtures at peace. Parker Green was friendly, but Tonya Collins was a bit more aggressive in a way that had Mercy trying to play peacemaker between her and Theo- reminding the latter that his gun was very much not a threat. Marshmallows- Ramsey's weapon- were had, introductions were made. Ultimately the group was not built to last- Ramsey ran off, spooked by loud screaming in the vicinity. Mercy extended an offer for the others to follow which none of the others would take.

Ramsey and Mercy would find the manor by evening time- and a new face in Kelly Nguyen. Mercy was relatively at ease, the day had gone by without anything bad being seen or being done to any of them. The people on the inside of the manor were either freaking out or were Madison Springer, the latter of whom was resistant to the idea of them entering. She relented after a bit, Mercy in particular noting it could have been a trap. All of the people on the outside made their pitches for being harmless, showing off a variety of wacky and useless weapons- Mercy counting her assigned poison in that category. Madison noted Nathan's presence in the house- she wanted them to avoid scaring him. They were then inside, with couches to sleep on. Mercy took some time to sleep but was eventually able to find it.

Announcements the next day were a shock, which the group tried to ignore to the best of their ability, with Ramsey teaching them all Texas hold'em. Mercy felt somewhat under the weather, and kept having to drink- which would ultimately seal her fate. Kelly had poisoned all of their water with Mercy's own ignored weapon- and Mercy had drunk the most of it. She stumbled out as the nausea became unbearable, and just outside in the hallway she started to uncontrollably vomit blood. Behind her the others began to succumb to the poison as well, Madison flew into a rage and began to attack people in blind retaliation, but Mercy would notice none of it, and would die alone, not even knowing who had cursed her to such a lonely and agonizing death.

Post-Game Evaluation: Not so lucky. - Abby Soto

Memorable Quotes: "I'm good (...) And it's Mercy. And I don't want a marshmallow right now." - Ask a silly question, get a silly lie in answer.

Other/Trivia

 * Mercy is the first kill on Main to be attributed to poisoning since V3's Corbin Arlen. However, her kill is the first to be attributed to an ingested poison in Main history.
 * Mercy's final hand in the card game contained pairs of aces and eights, a reference to the famous "dead man's hand" in poker.

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Mercy, in chronological order.

The Past: V7 Pregame: Prom: V7:
 * Bring It On 3: Misery Olympics
 * life observes itself
 * Pretty Girl (420 remix)
 * Sisyphean Self-Maintenance
 * High-Flying
 * Wow. Fantastic, Baby.
 * Mercy Me
 * They're Magically Delicious!
 * Son of Robot
 * Unicorn on the Gallows

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Mercy Ames. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Mercy is a character who will probably be mentioned years from now in the context of her death, and rightfully so. If you haven't heard of it, check it out; the poisoning scene is well-executed, horrific, and really one of the pieces of essential reading for the version. It's a pivotal moment for all of the characters involved, but because she's the one who actually dies for it, Mercy is the star of the show, and she wears it very well indeed, pulling in the fear and grossness and left-field nature of the betrayal and its subsequent fallout. And, more than that, it bears emphasizing that the scene flows super naturally, gives everyone good moments, and pivots really nicely from a relaxed, fun mood into death and misery. Even now, as the version nears its conclusion, it's one of the highest-impact moments that I bet most of the site remembers.

That said, I would say that Mercy's death is definitely the highlight of her story. I don't mean to suggest in any way that the rest is bad—it's just fine—but Mercy has a particular way of getting involved in threads that are massive, slow, following multiple simultaneous narrative thrusts, or some combination thereof. She has three threads in-game, and I count her last two as part of the death. Her first has good moments for everyone, but it's one of those early-game V7 pile-ups that stops anyone from quite getting the focus they deserve by sheer virtue of having so many kids each chasing their own beats and plots. And it's something that holds true for Mercy specifically in Pregame as well. I'd say her most successful Pregame thread, the one to really sink into to get a feel for her, is the on-on-one with Aliya, High-Flying, and then also a special mention for her Prom appearance alongside Demetri which is another of those giant mess threads but in which her specific purpose and prominence sort of lets Mercy rise above that.

So I guess, in short, I'd say Mercy's a character who slides under the radar for the most part, not really excelling but never doing badly, except that at her end she knocks it out of the park with one of the most iconic and well-executed conclusions in the version, or maybe even SOTF as a whole. And, for someone who goes out early, that's a very respectable place to end up. - MurderWeasel